CVB campaign aims to make city a tourist destination

Mariano "Bean" Ayala, president and CEO of the Brownsville Convention & Visitors Bureau, points to New Orleans in talking about his group’s new marketing campaign: In the Big Easy, he said, there’s always a sense that something fun is going on even when it’s not Mardi Gras.

Ayala wants people to feel the same way about Brownsville, thus the CVB’s new slogan: "Always a Fiesta." Ayala, Mayor Tony Martinez and other officials inaugurated the new campaign Monday evening at Cobbleheads restaurant with an official dedication of February as "Brownsville WOW!" month. The idea is to keep the WOW! going through the entire year, with help from events such as the Latin Jazz Festival and Air Fiesta.

"We are a city that has for the longest time been promoted as ‘On the Border, By the Sea,’ and now we’re adding WOW! and its accompanying slogan ‘Always a Fiesta,’" Ayala said.

The new slogan won’t replace ‘On the Border, By the Sea" but will augment it, he said. Ayala said it’s fitting to launch WOW! now, since February is the month Brownsville slips into full party mode with Charro Days, Mr. Amigo and Sombrero Fest. The BCVB got a jump on the new campaign with a big, splashy ad in the latest issue of "Texas Monthly." CVB headquarters, the Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport and other locations around town are bedecked with papel picado banners, in keeping with the fiesta theme.

The new campaign stemmed from a series of meetings the CVB held the last two summers to get input from various community leaders and stakeholders about how to promote the city’s assets. One outcome is a poster featuring a roster of seasonal events along with several options for things do to in and around Brownsville year round. Ayala said the theory behind keeping the fiesta spirit alive, even when there’s no fiesta, is that visitors will feel happier. Happier visitors stay longer and spend more, he said.

"We’ve got competition everywhere," Ayala said. "Every city needs to do something. We’re trying to stand out big time. That’s what the WOW! campaign is: That we’re unique, we believe in each other, and we believe in Brownsville. That is the WOW! factor."

The campaign is already accounted for in the CVB’s usual annual budget, $525,000, funded by a tax on the city’s hotel rooms, he said.

"We planned it well enough that it’s not going to cost anything extra," Ayala said.

Martinez said downtown Brownsville is a "diamond in the rough" that’s overdue for polishing.

"I think everybody is in the mode to promote this town and get it off dead center," the mayor said. "There are just a whole lot of good things going on. Hopefully we’ll get the impetus to move it in the right direction."

Martinez is scheduled to attend a conference soon in Birmingham, Ala. — at no cost to Brownsville taxpayers — to meet with mayors of several U.S. cities who have experience in city design and revitalization. He envisions the revitalization of downtown Brownsville as complementing pending improvements to the city’s resacas and the expansion of its hike-and-bike trails. It all goes toward making Brownsville a destination city rather than a "pass-through city," Martinez said.

"It’s going to take us a little while, but if we can just move and get started," he said. "We really need the whole community to get behind it. It’s great to have an idea, but we’ve got to get the community itself behind it. Everybody’s got to be an ambassador for Brownsville."